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The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage
written by Daniel Mark Epstein
Studio : Ballantine Books
by Ballantine Books
Release Date : 2008-05-20
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Released : 2008-05-20
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780345477996
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 7 reviews)
List Price : $28.00
Our Price : $16.19
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Americancivilwar.com |
From the Author: What's New in The Lincolns, Portrait of a Marriage? During the years I was researching and writing this book I was asked again and again: Have you found anything new, in facts or perspective? The answer is yes, and yes again. Everything is new in the sense that when one puts aside the stereotypes associated with the Lincolns, a rich and complex married life emerges. The stereotypes are: Mary was crazy, and Abraham was a saint. The most popular myth is that Lincoln married a madwoman, and suffered patiently and heroically through twenty-two miserable years of marriage. After my research, I reached two conclusions that shaped my portrait of the marriage. First, these two people loved each other deeply, from the time they met in Springfield in 1839, until his assassination in 1865. The second is that Mary was extremely interested in Abraham's career and speeches; whenever they could, the two of them talked about these things. She was a strong political partner for him. The rest of my work has been a careful gathering of details. Here again, there is a lot that is new. First, this is the only book about the marriage that recounts the Springfield years (16 years out of 22) in as much detail as the White House years. In Springfield the family achieved a delicate balance that was destabilized in wartime Washington. The story that began as a romance turns to tragedy. The Lincolns' courtship was stormy; he broke off their engagement in 1840, and they were not reconciled until 1842. New evidence indicates that Lincoln believed he had syphilis, and would not resume the courtship until he believed he was cured. I discovered letters from Mary's brother-in-law that shed light on the courtship, and the abrupt reconciliation and marriage in 1842. This is the first book to connect Lincoln's reading of The Niles Register (a news magazine of the time) with his speeches against the Mexican War during his term of congress in 1847-48. In their Washington boarding house in 1848, the Lincolns witnessed the abduction of a black servant who was buying his freedom. Using newspaper accounts of the time I was able to detail this terrifying incident. Mary's physical abuse of her husband has mostly been a matter of rumor. In 1857 she is supposed to have hit her husband with a stick of firewood, injuring his nose. I was able to find store receipts for a gelatin plaster that Lincoln purchased on the date witnesses saw him wearing the plaster cast, on his nose, in court. Much has been written about the plot to assassinate Lincoln on his way through Baltimore for the inauguration. This book is the first to describe the danger to which Mary and her sons were exposed en route to Baltimore while Lincoln passed secretly from Harrisburg to Washington. The Presidential train with Mary aboard served as a decoy, and the journey through "mob city" was a nightmare. One of the most exciting moments of my research was in discovering a poem of Albert Laighton's that the Lincolns read together. It shaped the last lines of Lincolns' first inaugural address. Another was the discovery of a letter from a Washington physician describing Mrs. Lincoln's handling of a medical crisis in the White House (when her children had measles) that disproves the received opinion she was too unstable to handle such emergencies. There's a lot more that is new, but I don't want to spoil it here. I felt honored to be entrusted with these materials, and to tell the Lincolns' story. --Daniel Mark Epstein
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Product Description |
The first full-length portrait of the marriage of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in more than fifty years, The Lincolns is a fascinating new work of American history by Daniel Mark Epstein, an award-winning biographer and poet known for his passionate understanding of the Civil War period.
Although the private lives of political couples have in our era become front-page news, the true story of this extraordinary and tragic first family has never been fully told. The Lincolns eclipses earlier accounts with riveting new information that makes husband and wife, president and first lady, come alive in all their proud accomplishments and earthy humanity.
Epstein gives a fresh close-up view of the couple’s life in Springfield, Illinois (of their twenty-two years of marriage, all but six were spent there). We witness the troubled courtship of an aristocratic and bewitching Southern belle and a struggling young lawyer who concealed his great ambition with self-deprecating humor; the excitement and confusion of the newlyweds as they begin their marriage in a small room above a tavern, and the early signs of Mary’s instability and Lincoln’s moodiness; their joyful creation of a home on the edge of town as Lincoln builds his law practice and makes his first forays into politics. We discover their consuming ambition as Lincoln achieves celebrity status during his famed debates with Stephen A. Douglas, which lead to Lincoln’s election to the presidency.
The Lincolns’ ascent to the White House brought both dazzling power and the slow, secret unraveling of the couple’s unique bond. The Lincolns dramatizes certain well-known events with stunning new immediacy: Mary’s shopping sprees, her defrauding of the public treasury to increase her budget, and her jealousy, which made enemies for her and problems for the president. Yet she was also a brilliant hostess who transformed the shabby White House into a social center crucial to the Union’s success. After the death of their little boy, not a year after Lincoln took office, Mary turned for solace to spirit mediums, but her grief drove her to the edge of madness. In the end, there was little left of the Lincolns’ relationship save their enduring devotion to each other and to their surviving children.
Written with enormous sweep and striking imagery, The Lincolns is an unforgettable epic set at the center of a crucial American administration. It is also a heartbreaking story of how time and adversity can change people, and of how power corrupts not only morals but affections. Daniel Mark Epstein’s The Lincolns makes two immortal American figures seem as real and human as the rest of us. |
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The 'Hellcat' In The Whitehouse |
Mr. Epstein writes a very personal portrayal of the marriage of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. His book is easy reading for a historical book, and the author chooses not to burden the reader with voluminous footnotes in the text, but rather lists each quote and source in the appendix by chapter. The book is perhaps the finest and best researched exposition of the character of the Lincoln's marriage.
Epstein does a wonderful job of illustrating how good the Lincoln's marriage really was, as far as their compatibility and closeness. They both loved poetry and they both loved politics. Almost all the strategy and speeches that Lincoln made prior to his run for the Presidency were at the very least, run by Mary before he made his presentation. Mary gave critical and helpful advice on the substance and tone of his speeches. In addition, the Lincoln's were very affectionate toward each other. Mr. Epstein actually points out that it was the practice of the Lincoln's to make love to each other every night. This active love life continued until the birth of Mary's last child, Tad, whose head which was very large at birth, seriously damaged her birth canal and made sex difficult and painful from that point onward.
In addition, the author does an excellent job of illustrating the serious `mood disorder' that seems to have afflicted Mary throughout her life, and which increased in severity as she grew older. There are numerous stories all through their life together of this erratic behavior which are mentioned in the literature of historians and well presented in this book. By the time Lincoln won the Whitehouse, Mary's moods were so erratic, that it led John Hay, one of two main secretary/assistants that Lincoln had as President, to refer to Mary as "The Hellcat." Her rage could be released at the slightest incident and her jealousy was enormous.
Overall, the book does a wonderful job of explaining and portraying the marriage and how Lincoln interacted with his wife Mary all through his marriage to her. It is a must read book for those readers interested in Lincoln and his administration. In addition, it is a wonderful read for any reader who has interest in a deeply personal rendering of the inner life of perhaps the best remembered American President. It comes highly recommended.
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Intriguing New Look at the Lincolns |
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This book has a most intriguing look at the Lincolns as human beings. The Lincolns certainly seem more realistically portrayed in this book than in previous works. Daniel Mark Epstein provides his readers with both a new angle on the Lincolns as well as plenty of information to back up most of his assertions. However, Epstein does have a tendency every now and then to make assertions about the Lincoln's private life than the sources actually reveal. Although this does dampen the book's overall quality, it still makes for a fascinating read. |
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A Sensitive, Compelling Work That May Be the Most Accessible Lincoln Biography |
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Like so many Americans, I am an enormous admirer of Abraham Lincoln. I have dipped into other biographies of this extraordinary man, but found myself at times distracted by the myriad details of political and military events. This biography, on the other hand, I could not put down. Through his exquisite prose, astute insights, and meticulous research, Epstein illuminates the complex relationship between Abe and Mary Lincoln. Epstein brings his sensibilities and intuition as a poet to this marvelous and very readable work. He tenderly recounts the details of the courtship of this fascinating couple, their early married days, and their lives together in Springfield, Illinois and the White House. He tells the story of a marriage that started out with great love and passion, but became crushed under the enormous losses and pressures suffered by both. Epstein helps us to understand the intense bond between the two that endured most of their lives, despite their very different temperaments, values and morals. How fortunate we the readers are to have this intimate glimpse into the real makeup of the Lincolns' marriage. |
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A Poetic Work of Genius |
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Reading this book will be as close to getting to know the Lincolns as it is possible. Mr. Epstein has written a book that never embroiders the facts, but that is filled with penetrating insights into the characters of these two remarkable people. At times, one feels that Mary behaved no better than a common embezzler, at other times one's heart breaks for this poor, brave woman. As for Lincoln, he was a saint and a great president, but was he the right husband for this needy, difficult woman? Was he prescient, during their courtship, in suspecting that he could not make her happy? Possibly, no one could. What I found most startling is the suggestion in the last chapters that Mary, although mad or nearly so, saw the physical dangers to her husband more clearly than he did and that his insouciance exacerbated her erratic behavior. The Lincolns loved Shakespeare, but their evolutions suggest Cervantes' Quixote: there was a core of sanity in her madness that made her see the world as it was and this deepened her mental woes; his acceptance of fate blinded him to the need to prevent, rather than almost court, assassination. Did he somehow want to leave her in the only honorable way he could? Was his barely suppressed depression too much to bear as he mounted the steps to the theater box on that Good Friday? I never thought so until I read this great book. |
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Life With The Lincolns |
There have been many excellent books written on both Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Not one previous book, however, takes such a sensitive and intimate look at their marriage. It's a fresh perspective on a well-worn subject. By examining their complex marriage, Daniel Mark Epstein gives greater insight into both of these fascinating individuals. Epstein's prose is absolutely beautiful, causing this reader to reread several passages just for the sheer delight of them. No matter how many books one has read on Mary Lincoln and/or her good husband, The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, will enable one to know them even better.
This book is an important and excellent addition to the Lincoln literature. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece. |
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